India must play Prasad

A convenient memory is of great help to cricketers as long as they are aware of their shortcomings as well. This is the situation that the Indians are in, on the eve of the second Test at St George's Park in Port Elizabeth. They can conveniently remind themselves of their comebacks in the second match in a Test series against Sri Lanka and Australia. Yet they would do well to be aware that solid batting led to their success. It was Laxman at the Eden Gardens and Ganguly and Dravid at Kandy who played the stellar roles.

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Unfortunately, Laxman has been hard up for runs and his method of batting is compounding his problems too. Dravid has been thrust into the opening slot and Ganguly has been off the boil in Test matches for the best part of this year.

This has meant that though the batting line-up runs deep and appears solid on paper, it has flattered to deceive when required. The captain has to take decisions and own them up even if eventually proved wrong. The most important decision relates to the opening slot. In my opinion, Dravid should be batting at the one-drop position. He has done well abroad batting at that slot and sending him in earlier than necessary will be detrimental to the side.

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The team management has to think hard about their bowling options too. The left-arm duo of Khan and Nehra failed to make any impact on the South African batsmen in the first Test. That they were not fully fit is not the point here really. The pitch at St George's Park does encourage seam bowlers a lot but it is not quick by any standards. As there will be a lot of lateral movement available for the seamers, Venkatesh Prasad must figure in the plans strongly. His experience will come in handy and his natural outswingers will be of great advantage. In fact he is capable of getting wickets by the bagful on pitches such as these. Over and above all these factors, Prasad and Srinath make a good combination and they do better bowling in tandem.

Agarkar or Nehra can be the options for the third seamer's slot but the one major factor against either of them will be their fitness. Between Nehra and Agarkar, it would make sense to go in for Agarkar for two reasons. One is that he has been in the thick of things right from the start of the tour. Secondly, he has bowled to the South African batsmen and is aware of what not to do while bowling at them.

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Harbhajan Singh opted out of the first Test with an injury and now that he is fit, conditions may not allow two spinners to play in the eleven. While Kumble is a seasoned performer, Harbhajan has proved to be a real force to reckon with in Kumble's absence. The young sardar also bowled well in the one-dayers and it was quite clear that the South Africans were all at sea against the off-spinner.

All in all, Ganguly is in an unenviable situation, having to take the bull by its horns both with the bat and with his decisions. He has no room for any dilly-dallying and it is a must-win situation for the visitors. The pressure is really on Ganguly's gang to stay in the series. They will not be encouraged by the fact that St George's Park has definitely not been a successful venue for the Indians in the past.

The Indians though have exceeded expectations under Ganguly in the past and they may put it across the South Africans. But in order for that to happen, the batsmen will first have to put up runs on the board.